Pacific Rim 2 Nabs Official Title, Production Kicks Off Down Under

Fire up those Jaegers, there’s an apocalypse to be cancelled. Production on Pacific Rim 2 has officially kicked off under the title Maelstrom.

Confirmation hails from John Boyega’s personal Instagram feed (via ComingSoon), where The Force Awakens star wrote “first day on Pacific Rim today. Here’s to a great adventure ahead!” Principal photography will take place Down Under, where Steven S. DeKnight will be calling the super-sized shots from behind the lens. Yes, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps may be licking its wounds from the original wave of monstrous Kaiju – particularly after the loss of the apocalypse-cancelling Stacker Pentecost – but there’s a new mascot in town.

In a previous Instagram post (see below), Boyega revealed that he will indeed be taking up arms as Pentecost Jr. in Pacific Rim: Maelstrom. It’s an exciting role for the Star Wars breakout, who will surely be piloting one of the towering Jaegers alongside X-Men: Apocalypse star Lana Candor, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Ivanna Sakhno and the recently-cast Adria Arjona.

Pacific Rim: Maelstrom is earmarked for theatrical release on February 23, 2018.

First day on Pacific Rim today. Here’s to a great adventure ahead ✌?

A photo posted by BOYEGA (@jboyega_) on Nov 9, 2016 at 10:14am PST

“Today. Today… At the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other. Today there is not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse!” -Stacker Pentecost My dad said it right the first time but I’ll take it from here. #Iamapentecost #pacificrim2

A photo posted by BOYEGA (@jboyega_) on Oct 24, 2016 at 6:53am PDT